12 Things You Don't Know About Gia Carangi

Often considered as the first supermodel, Gia Carangi rocked the United States as well as the rest of the world with her stunning looks during the late 70s and the early 80s. Born to Kathleen and Joseph Carangi on January 29, 1960, Gia Carangi had a rough childhood. She was deprived of parental love due to her parents' violent and volatile marriage. Luckily, at 16 years, Gia Carangi found good luck in the form of a modeling contract, but it didn't stay longer as the blue-eyed model ruined her career and life with drugs. Read 12 interesting and little-known things you don't know about the short-lived supermodel of the older generation, Gia Carangi.

1.She Had A Troubled Childhood

Gia Carangi was born in Philadelphia. Her father, Joseph Carangi, was a restaurant owner and her mother, Kathleen Carangi, was a homemaker. Fed up with her husband's violent behavior, Kathleen abandoned the whole family when Gia was an 11-year-old girl. She never came back to see her children again. Gia loved her mother so much that her mom's absence started to affect her behavior. She spent the next five years of her life alone, dejected, and hopeless. Many people who knew Gia Carangi attributed her broken childhood to her adult life problems such as drug abuse.

Impressed by her gorgeous looks, a local talent manager in Philadelphia signed her up to feature in newspaper and magazine advertisements. Gia was only 16 years old at that time. She moved to New York a year later and worked with Wilhelmina Models, Inc. Her first major fashion photo shoot was with Chris von Wangenheim, who was one of the iconic fashion photographers of the 70s. By the time she turned 18, she had already established herself as a prominent model in the country. Vogue Magazine once described her rise in the fashion industry as "meteoric."

3. She Was The Favorite Model Of Top Fashion Photographers Of That Era

Famous photographers like Chris von Wangenheim, Francesco Scavullo, Arthur Elgort, Denis Piel, and Marco Glaviano queued up to work with her. Top magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan featured Gia on their cover pages, and she posed nude for many other publications. Gia Carangi modeled for numerous high profile business establishments in the United States and around the world. She acted in advertisements of Armani, Christian Dior, Versace, Maybelline, Calvin Klein, etc. Remember, all of this happened within the first year of her modeling career! At that time, the Americans knew Gia Carangi only by her first name.